Why is Snape allowed to continue spying? Double Trouble

[hekatesheadband]

No: HPFGUIDX 131836

Steve/bboyminn:
> As far as Snape, sadly (for you), I must once again trot out my
> Double-Double Agent theory. The best explanation I can come up 
> with to explain how Snape can still be at Hogwarts and yet still 
> appear to be working with Voldemort is that  he is a double-double 
> agent spy. 

Snape's loyalties are an issue near and dear to all of our hearts... 
the many excellent recent posts on the subject have made me feel 
compelled, or at least inspired, to de-lurk after far too long. 
While the matter itself could provide enough fodder for several 
groups, my take on it - thank goodness - could not.

Geo:
>> But Voldemort had Crouch under the Imperius curse for more a few 
>> months and would have had the time and leisure to interrogate the 
>> former head of the department of magical law enforcement on what 
>> happened after his fall and which Death Eaters snitched and which 
>> remained loyal and given his position he would have certainly been
>> an expert on the matter considering he presided during the 
>> wizengamot trial in which Karkaroff snitched on Rookwood and would 
>> have probably known about Snape being a spy so that the latter 
>> could have avoided Azkaban.

I've pondered these same issues for far longer than might be 
considered entirely healthy. I've come to the conclusion that it is 
possible to reconcile Snape's apparent good standing with 
Voldemort with his exposure at Karkaroff's hearing. In OotP, Snape 
tells Umbridge that he's been teaching at Hogwarts for fourteen 
years - i.e., he started teaching there in 1981. Given McGonagall's 
specification of a December starting date for her own employment, it 
seems reasonable, though not absolutely necessary, to assume a 
normative September start date (normative from a textual perspective 
if not an internal one, at least). This would have Snape working for 
Dumbledore from 1 September 1981, two months before Voldemort's 
first fall. (We can be certain about the date because in 
Potterverse, 1 September always falls on a Monday.) It is 
inconceivable that Voldemort could have remained unaware of this (or 
that Snape could have banked on his ignorance).

Steve/bboyminn: 
> First, Voldemort sent Snape to Dumbledore to appear to betray
> Voldemort, but with the real intent of acting as Voldemort's spy on
> Dumbledore. 
> 
> Then Snape actually joined Dumbledore and now became a spy against
> Voldemort. Since Voldemort sent Snape to Dumbledore, it is expected
> that Snape, in order to maintian his cover, will appear to be loyal 
> to Dumbledore and acting against Voldemort. So any betrayals 
> Voldemort sees will be expected as part of the game.

This hypothesis strikes me as making a lot of sense - it seems 
likely that Snape volunteered or Voldemort assigned him to spy on 
Dumbledore. If the former is the case, the repentent ex-Death 
Eater story that Dumbledore believes is a reality; if the latter, it 
was true despite Voldemort's understanding, became true despite his 
intentions, or remains false. I will spare you further ruminations 
and defer to Red Hen's more eloquent and far more thorough analysis 
at http://www.redhen-publications.com. (Click "My 
Work," "Commentary," at the bottom of that menu "Potterverse." Two 
essays are most relevant to the issue at hand: "Double-00 Sevvie" 
and "Coward and Oathbreaker." Needless to say, I don't know how she 
feels about direct links.) These are must-reads for all grown-up 
Harry Potter fans with even a remote interest - sympathetic, 
hostile, or dispassionate - in Snape.

The possibilities I consider reasonably likely are those that she 
proposes, with one other - namely that Voldemort correctly 
understands that Snape is loyal to Dumbledore and is using him 
accordingly. If this is the case, Voldemort can feed the Order 
misleading information (with occasional tidbits of truth to preserve 
the game, of course) and learn about the Order's activities at the 
same time. I sincerely doubt that anyone is as good an Occlumens as 
Voldemort is a Legilimens, Dumbledore possibly excepted.

Steve/bboyminn: Snape on the other hand has an
> excuse for not appearing, and that makes him 'the one I BELIEVE has
> left me forever'; meaning truly joined Dumbledore.
> 
> Once the graveyard ordeal was over, Snape contacts Voldemort again,
> pledges his loyalty and offers to continue spying against 
> Dumbledore. Even if Voldemort doesn't believe Snape, he certainly 
> believes he can use Snape to his advantage for as long as it serves 
> him.

To expand on that a little: I would not be surprised if Coward, 
Traitor and Servant were not, as many suppose, Karkaroff, Snape and 
Crouch Jr but rather Bagman, Karkaroff and Crouch Jr. Once again, 
I'm with Red Hen's take on this one; Pharnabazus' hypothesis 
(http://www.livejournal.com/users/pharnabazus/, part 8) also seems 
promising. I would add a few observations of my own: first, however 
great Rita Skeeter's propensity to exaggerate and distort, her claim 
to have damaging inside information on Ludo Bagman is worth 
examining. An ostensible fool's innocent passing of information to 
an ostensible upright Unspeakable, whose secret affiliation with 
Voldemort astonished even Barty Crouch Sr, is neither inside 
information nor likely to make anyone's skin crawl. I doubt it would 
so much as give Gilderoy Lockhart gooseflesh on a cold day. Add that 
to Winky's insistence that Bagman is a "bad Dark wizard" and the man 
is cast in a very different light.

As for the bottom line - whether Snape is really on the side of the 
angels or of Satan's party - I imagine we'll have to wait until book 
seven before we know for sure. Probably about two sentences before 
the last, to boot. And what fun would it be if we couldn't speculate?

-hekatesheadband
(who likes speculation, animals, and drafty old buildings)